Lavender Retro Dress & Pattern Giveaway!

Description

It seems hard to believe that with all the sewing I’ve been doing this year I had not yet sewn one single 1950s dress. Until now!

This lavender matte satin party dress was sewn from the newly released Butterick retro 5708 pattern, which is overall a wonderful design. The shoulder ties are a little tricky to tie perfectly in place, but they would be great for a casual summer sundress. The gathered skirt has so much fullness to it that I didn’t even have to wear my crinoline underskirt! I did (as usual) wear a crinoline with this dress for something closer to a 1950s shape, and I had a lot of fun embellishing the bodice with Swarovski crystals and sheer ribbon.

If I use this pattern again I would definitely use something lighter weight, because the bodice is a little too firm with two thick layers of matte satin. Otherwise, it probably won’t be on my “to-do” list in the near future. I did love the pattern, but I think I like the color and materials much more!

I sincerely wish that we could all go back to wearing dresses like those! The world would at least be a prettier place if every woman was all dressed up, but I suppose it’s just wishful thinking on my part.

Nevertheless, I always love wearing my 1950s dresses, and this one was a lot of fun to have photographed! You can see lots more pictures on my blog , and I’m having a giveaway for this pattern that I mention there as well.

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